How Chris Cage Launched an eCommerce Foods Business from his Mom’s Kitchen (E120)

Chris CageFounder of Greenbelly Meals Bio: Chris is the founder of Greenbelly Meals, a company he founded in his mom's kitchen after thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail. Greenbelly makes a ready-to-eat meal loaded with dense nutrition for hikers and adventurers. Chris also wrote a book called "How to Hike the Appalachian Trail" and has appeared on podcasts like the Joe Rogan Experience. When he's not hiking, he can be found rock climbing, playing board games or nerding out on punk rock. Show Notes: Cottage Food LawsKickstarter raised 19kApril Dunford - Obviously AwesomeChad from Boardgame Tables4 Hour Workweek Sponsors: Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation Links: https://www.greenbelly.co/https://www.facebook.com/greenbellymeals/https://www.instagram.com/greenbellymeal/https://www.youtube.com/c/greenbelly Transcript: Charles (00:00): In this episode of The Business of eCommerce. I talk with Chris Cage about founding an eCommerce foods business. This is a business of eCommerce episode 120. Welcome to the business of eCommerce. The show that helps eCommerce retailers start, launch and grow their eCommerce business. I am Charles Palleschi and I'm here today with Chris Cage. Chris is the founder of green belly meals, a company that he founded in his mom's kitchen after hiking the Appalachian trail, green belly makes a ready to eat mills bar loaded with dense nutrients for hikers and adventurers. I as Chris on the show today to chat about his experience launching an eCommerce foods brand. So, Hey Chris, how are you doing today? Chris (00:44): Charles, what's up man? Thanks for having me. Charles (00:46): Yeah, awesome to have you on the show. It we're just chatting before the show. Currently your abroad, right? So you're originally from the U S but currently you are? Chris (00:55): Yeah, I'm in Chiang Mai, Thailand right now. If you can tell the it's dark. Yeah. But yeah, we are worlds away right now. Yeah, I'm in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Charles (01:07): Yeah. So, and that's, I know we had to do some time-sucking here. It's early for me, late for you. But so thank you for taking the time. Chris (01:14): Yeah, man. Thanks for having me do. Yeah. But yeah, we are a little bit off on time, so that's for sure. Charles (01:17): Yeah, exactly the opposite of most. I think actually it might be the opposite. It's super interesting. You're kind of the background. So ready to eat backpacking mail. Right? So this is a bar. So you guys sell it's a bar specifically if you're a backpacker like a protein bar sort of thing or what exactly is it? Chris (01:37): Yeah, it's two large fluffy meal bars inside a single package that provides 650 calories. So we use all natural ingredients and really just try to focus on a high macro nutrient label. So high calorie protein, fat, fiber, all that good stuff. So for hikers, which is, my background is I was a hiker and hiking the Appalachian trail and hiking 20 miles a day for six months. That, you know, I said, Hey, you know, I was losing a lot of weight and weight, is it weight on your pack as a huge priority because you generally have maybe a hundred miles or five days in between resupply points that you need to make sure that the food you are carrying in between those resupply points is as nutritionally dense as possible. So that was kind of where the idea came from is get creating a product that's going to be nutritionally dense. So if you're burning 5,000 calories a day and you could have to and you have to carry all the food, you know, in your pack for the next five days, it really needs to be dense. So I started thinking about creating a really dense lightweight ready to eat meal that, you know, was all natural. Charles (02:52): So, okay. Yeah. I don't talk to too many people that are in that kind of actual food space. I feel like that in itself, it's like its